My theory ( swedish citizen) comes close to suppression of guilt and history. Racialbiology was a huge subject in europe during the early 20th century. This lead to a common belief that the "white" european was "superior" to other races. This also (depending on your view on history) caused WW2.
After WW2, Europe was pretty much left with the guilt of what had happened. Guilt turned into a tabu against anything that could be viewed as racist. Today we see rising crime stats, precieved threats to our own culture and naturally people start looking for the source of the issues, trying to find a scapegoat. The tabu comes into play since it is considered wrong to do anything that is percieved as racist. Breaking the tabu = a lot of attention and interest = a lot of press. Press starts painting up an image of a racist Europe, where it in most cases is only a small minority that is actually racist.
In a lot of European countries the fact that the older generations have never even come in contact with foreigners until today only serves to enhance the problem.

TL;DR Europe is generally not racist and the dislike for immigrants isn't nearly as wide-spred as the media makes it out to be.

(Horrible spelling can be attributed to being tired at the time of writing.)

Because even though they live the possible worst type of life here, its still better than what they are used to. So they are content with going on social welfare, pickpockets, drug dealers ect. And because kids tend to become what their parents are the circle is more or less unbreakable, and they're repopulate, so there will just become more and more of these community leeches.
And most of them breed a lot more than europeans, so in a few years there will be more X. generation immigrants here than europeans, they'll be a majority with a minority of leader positions, and political posts. In a democracy that seems like a pretty decent formula for unrest.

I doubt any of it will have direct impact on my way of living though, so honestly I don't really care. Some of them make pretty good kebab, that's what really matters.

As a norwegian im getting REALLY sick of CERTAIN immigrants,
People from the far east, china, thailand etc, i love those guys, they work hard, harder than most native people.

And then it is the other ones...lives on welfare, lived here for 5-6years+ and still dont know a SINGLE word of norwegian even tho we give free lessons for it, and they even have the BALLS to complain when that they arnt treated correctly, i will not say where they come from as that would get me infracted, wanna keep things civil :>

And, i REALLY hope that our immigrant policy is changed, its way to soft at the moment.

I do not think that is, I do think you are drawing a big line and thinking immigrants are generally disliked because the ones who dislike them has to shout out loud about it, whilst the people who don't care about immigrants usually just mind their own bussiness, in quiet.

There are probably multiple reasons for increasing anti-immigration feeling among Europeans. One of them is the relative ethnic homogeniety of most European countries which makes assimilation of a foreigner very difficult. Because your background will always be easily revealed with your name, accent, skin/hair etc color. Also, compared to US, Europe generally receive much less educated immigrants possibly due to the language barrier. However, there are of course many tolerant Europeans who knows not all immigrants are here to live on welfare and break the laws of host societies.

Why? Because European countries tend to be relatively ethnoreligiously homogeneous, and the addition of a non-European, non-Western group of immigrants into that mix tends to cause significant social problems. That and I've noticed that the Muslim immigrants in European countries seem far less keen on assimilating into the local culture than hispanic immigrants to the United States.

I believe it's because we're now developing the US based fear of insulting different religions. Couple of examples: This last Christmas(or rather Winter season, since Christmas is offensive), was the first time Bruxelles didn't have Christmas tree(or winter season tree), because it would be offensive to certain religions. In Slovakia, we had troubles having our anniversary coin accepted by EU central bank, because the saints on it, saints we revere for 1150 years, were depicted with halos and cross, as it always been. They returned the coin to us without halos and cross, because having that coin in a pocket would probably offend someone. Due to outcries from our country luckily this has been reverted. This is why so many people dislike certain immigrant groups, because we're no longer able to continue with habits we had for many years, because suddenly they are offensive. But god forbid if you tried to petition the mosque construction in your neighborhood, then you're branded racist, ignorant, homophobe, nazi, fascist, sexist, lasagnist, bamboozlist and all kinds of -ist to make you actually afraid to leave your house. I don't have problems with immigrants as long as they don't have problems with me. I spent a year in Indonesia, with many muslim and hindu friends and we went along fine, because I wouldn't even dream of going around yelling how a private temple on the roof of our building is offending the crap out of me and how Ramadan should be renamed to "Mid-season period where you can't eat during the day Holiday", because Ramadan offends me.

Basically TLDR:Once you realize you are a white straight middle class Christian, brace yourself, because you're gonna offend the heavenly crap out of whole lot of people

A playerbase begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown

First off, before we begin the discussion, let me just request that there be:
1. No racism.
2. No flaming another poster or attacking another poster, but rather attacking the argument presented if deemed necessary.
3. A civil discourse and mutual respect between all participants as this is a sensitive and controversial topic.

Now, as everyone who keeps up with the news might have heard, there have been quite a number of notable incidents within greater Europe of anti-immigration extremism. Even Anders-Breivik, the mass murderer of Norway, can be construed as an anti-immigration extremist as in his neurotic manifesto of hatred, he stated that he wanted to attack the left-wing of his country for being pro-immigration and thus, in his view, anti-Norway.

This stance is echoed by the increasingly active and militant neo-Nazi groups in countries such as Greece, Russia and Germany. Greece even seems to be allowing neo-Nazis into the mainstream (as evidenced by recent announcements by some municipalities in Greece for victims of crimes to report them to their local neo-Nazi branches.) This shift of law enforcement to political parties is frighteningly similar to what happened in both Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia before the two regimes in each of those countries reached the zenith of their respective power.

There have also been a number of anti-immigration crimes, such as random beatings of migrant workers in Russia by neo-Nazis, the annexation of whole towns in Germany by neo-Nazis, and lastly the proclamation of Greek neo-Nazis in its parliament that "all immigrants should be deported and that Greece should be surrounded by land mines to ward them off," (source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ork-camps.html) [period]

Also, recent polls by various groups, including the BBC, show that in terms of public opinion, anti-immigration feelings have been on the rise according to most trends. This seems to coincide with the toughening economy. Furthermore, it suggested that Europeans of many countries (the U.K. seemed to differ here) seem to not view foreign ethnic minorities as fellow countrymen. Overall, it is evident that Europe is slumping towards an anti-immigrant stage in the 21st century and that is alarming to anyone who has analysed history to a far enough extent to realize what comes next.

Why do you guys think this is?

Personally, I think this is because of quite a number of reasons. The first of these reasons would be that I think most European countries simply don't have an immigration-friendly culture. They seem to be, even to an objective outsider such as me, more tight-knit in that they are not as accepting of outsiders, especially those who look different. It must also be more difficult to adapt and assimilate into European countries that do not have English as their national language (again, this may be why the U.K. is somewhat of an anomaly of this European trend) since immigrants must actually generally learn those languages upon arriving there as opposed to how many immigrants may already know English since it is the global language.

To contrast this, however, we have the United States. The United States is essentially, in the 21st century, but it also was into the mid to late 20th century, the most immigrant-friendly country in the entire world, and certainly the west. In its national ethos, it is repeatedly stated that it is a land of immigrants. To accentuate this, there's also a great number of visible minorities within the Great American Melting pot which makes arriving here as a new immigrant probably less alienating and disenfranchising.

I just wanted to say:
In Texas, they SHOOT MEXICANS (who're trying to become immigrants) FROM BEHIND A FENCE.
I mean that as literally as possible. They use guns. With bullets in them. They kill them. Dead.

The American myth of the U.S being a melting pot and Europe the oposite is untrue.

This is the map of Europe for about the past thousand years. As you can see for yourselfs borders changed, sometimes dramatically. The concept of National Identity and Nationalism really did not struck it's head up in Europe untill the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Before people aligned themselves by faith, commercial or political interests and such. Actually the American and French revolutions where the original trigger for nationalism.

If you travel across Europe you will notice a massive amount of cultural blending, and a great deal of historic influences of non-christian sources. Spanish vocabulary and even culutre borrows great deal from Arabic. Even if you travel Spain today the architecture post Reconquista and Pre-reconquista is strongly influenced by Islamic architecture. Also place names and such are often Arabic or slightly altered from Arabic.

Still across Europe, across nationalities and languages there is a shocking uniformity in customs, sayings, social structures, politics etc. Europe trough the ages exchanged culture, customs, goods and ideas. This despite somehow maintaining 230 spoken languages, (In Spain there are 9 officially recognized spoken languages, some wildly different from Spanish like Euskera).

Perhaps the truest and greatest historical divide in Europe is that betwen nations that where Catholic and their descendant religions (such as Protestants) and nations that where Orthodox. Funny enough this division goes back all the way to former Western and Eastern Roman Empires. This division is more cultural and economic than religious to be honest.

Even if you look at things like the lines along which Catholic and Orthodox nations structured their societies you will notice that they are fairly divergent. This division is fairly noticeable as you travel across Europe North to South and West to East.

If you really look at immigration patterns today within Europe the pattern is East to West. People of an Eastern Culture with different customs and habits settling in Western regions. It is natural that as strangers in a strange land for them, they gather in communities where they feel more comfortable.
As when it comes to immigration from outside Europe into Europe the pattern repeats itself. And due to the deep and maintained gap betwen the host nations and the guest nationals sometimes deep social issues appear. This could potentially lead to increased poverty, isolation and crime rates.

The greater is the difference betwen the immigrants and the host nations culture the more difficult assimilation becomes. From their point of view the Hosts are the ones that are being "wierd".

This is why sometimes governaments and people try to meet the new arrivals half way. Adapting the local customs and laws to create a more comfortable enviorment for the new arrivals. How well this worked is debetable. None the less. Immigration has always been a thing in Europe. An essential thing that allowed Europe to develop the way it did. Europe has been a melting pot since before the Roman Empire.

In todays context of an aging population, immigration is more important for Europe's economic future then it ever been. Also Europe always had very close ties to North Africa. European cultural, economic influence in North Africa is omnipresent. As is North African influence across Southern Europe. It is logical that most North Africans will see Europe as a logical destination for immigration.

Originally Posted by Orlong

It doesnt destroy the land to bury styrofoam 25 feet below the ground

Today Obama once again kneeled at the altar of environmental naziism and hurt this once great country. He has now banned all drilling in the Atlantic Ocean

That's great and all, but something that still kinda baffles me is that we have these southern European countries that are culturally connected with North Africa and the Middle East, how come there are so bloody many of them coming to Scandinavia? We have absolutely nothing in common culturally, and considering how many refugees there are, I doubt they actually got any real information about where there are jobs.

Not that I complain, I still think that my Somalian mate looks hilarious, a black guy with an ushanka that says CANADA while wearing a thick winter jacket just looks so odd.

Originally Posted by Cybran

If he thinks i will stand by and let Turks/North Africans come back to the land my ancestors died to free he is quite wrong.

Wait what.

Originally Posted by Daneman

Says someone who named himself tomatketchup. There's gotta be something wrong with someone who name themselves that.

If he thinks i will stand by and let Turks/North Africans come back to the land my ancestors died to free he is quite wrong.

Also his video just showed the change of Borders not of actual nations, languages and customs.

Errrr, what?

---------- Post added 2013-01-28 at 10:26 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Tomatketchup

That's great and all, but something that still kinda baffles me is that we have these southern European countries that are culturally connected with North Africa and the Middle East, how come there are so bloody many of them coming to Scandinavia? We have absolutely nothing in common culturally, and considering how many refugees there are, I doubt they actually got any real information about where there are jobs.

Not that I complain, I still think that my Somalian mate looks hilarious, a black guy with an ushanka that says CANADA while wearing a thick winter jacket just looks so odd.

That's great and all, but something that still kinda baffles me is that we have these southern European countries that are culturally connected with North Africa and the Middle East, how come there are so bloody many of them coming to Scandinavia? We have absolutely nothing in common culturally, and considering how many refugees there are, I doubt they actually got any real information about where there are jobs.

Because they're generally regarded as some of the most prosper nations in Europe, perhaps? If you were implying that they only/primarily go to Scandinavia, you'd be sorely mistaken. One of the largest groups of immigrants in France, for instance, comes from the former african colonies. And if you're referring to Mihalik's thorough exposé, the linguistic/cultural imprint of North african/Middle eastern cultures is not remotely significant enough to make a country like Spain (e.g.) a more desirable destination than Sweden (i.e. Catholicism vs Islam, Romance languages vs Semitic languages, etc).